Taurus - How do I Grow My Garden?
by Guru Rattana, Ph.D. - Issue #87, April 23, 2004
The Sun entered Taurus pastures April 19th at 10:50am PDT, and will graze there until May 20th at 10:59 when it starts to party in Gemini.
New Moon in Taurus
The New Moon in Taurus is not until May 18th at 9:53pm PDT at 28°. We have a lot of time to work with Taurus energy before we launch a new yearly Taurus cycle. While the Sun is in Taurus we want to examine our inner and outer foundations, and to evaluate our security issues, resource base and values. How we value ourselves determines how we spend our time and money. Our focus now is on our internal and external wealth. We want to make sure that our efforts and aspirations are accurately lined up with what truly affords us pleasure and satisfaction.
The North Node of the Moon has been in Taurus terrain since May 2003 and will stay through December 25th 2004. The sign of the North Node sets the tone and defines collective concern. Resource generation and allocation is an underlying personal and social theme during this time.
Scorpio Full Moon / Eclipse
The Scorpio Lunar Eclipse / Full Moon, May 4th at 1:34pm PDT intensifies our resource issues and amplifies the need/urgency for transformation in this area of our lives. Scorpio gets us in touch with the emotional issues and subconscious programs that control our reality. Scorpio also helps us get in touch with our deepest truth. The Scorpio/Taurus polarity motivates us to integrate those of our energies that express as superficial desires (Taurus), and power fixations/control trips (Scorpio), into expressions of heart-felt priorities and actions.
Solar and Lunar eclipses come in pairs, about two weeks apart. These celestial events disrupt the electromagnetic field of the Earth and zap our energy field. Many people feel very tired/exhausted at this time. The feeling of heaviness is amplified by the Sun in the Earth sign Taurus. Earth energy is more peaceful, but also heavier, than the fire energy of Aries. We feel more relaxed when the Sun moves into Taurus, but we can also feel let down and even depressed. Eclipses catalyze transformation and initiate change. We need to accept what is happening now, even though we may not understand it. We are being processed into a new phase of our lives.
Our Values
Taurus is the first Earth sign we encounter on our journey around the Zodiac. In Aries we defined our Self. In Taurus territory, or the second house of the birth chart, we plant our garden. We figure out how to support who we are, how we get what we want, and how to survive and meet our basic needs. One season at a time our garden grows, and we figure out how to thrive, to prosper, and to enjoy the amenities of life. The first steps in self-discovery are coached by Aries. Our Taurus coach introduces us to things, possessions, resources and value (both personal and material.)
Value is a key concept in Taurus territory. We discover what we value, what makes us comfortable, what things give us pleasure, what physical situations we feel are necessary for our security. We learn about what we have to DO to get what we want. We learn about the practical economics of life, and that we have to make and have money to buy possessions and services. What we also learn, and sometimes much later in life, is that the value we place on ourselves is a determining factor in our ability to manifest both the necessities, and goodies, of life.
In our younger years, we are often so preoccupied with all the things that money can buy, and how to generate enough money to purchase them, that we miss the importance of investigating and developing what money can't buy: our personal values, our self-worth and our unique talents. The Taurus maturity lesson teaches us that the sooner we link the two together, the more we can manifest and enjoy what we acquire.
Taurus is a fixed sign, which translates into traditional values, inherited attitudes and even rigidity. If we are too fixated on the status quo and too influenced by our society and family patterns, we may fall into the rut of following a path that our parents deem appropriate for us, and live by externally-defined values that don't reflect what really makes us happy. The transformative side of the fixed Earth sign Taurus, is that it furnishes the grounding energy to work material reality. Taurus makes physical reality known to us. Taurus teaches us how to generate, utilize, manage and protect our resources.
Cultivating Who We Are
Taurus teaches that we have to work for what we want. Taurus in not lottery territory, but Taurus can be our Garden of Eden. That is if we tend the soil, plant the seeds, water them and care for the food, plants and flowers that we choose to grow.
Yes, we have to weed, water and protect our crops, but Taurus in not into inappropriate, excessive toil. Taurus teaches us to first cultivate our unique talents. There is something magical about who we are. If we tune into and learn to use our unique gifts, we will be appropriate in what we plant, we will enjoy tending our garden and our harvest will be more plentiful. Like the garden we plant in the earth, the garden of self-worth and self-expression that we plant in ourselves is an evolutionary process.
In order to identify the flavor of your talents that need to be developed, look at the planets in your second house, and the sign on the cusp of the second house. If you have Cancer present, real estate, home decorating or feng shui may be ways that you would express yourself in making a living. If Sagittarius is present, explore spiritual training, teaching, higher education or jobs involving foreign countries and long-distance travel. Pisces in the second house can be confusing. We might feel more inclined to relax and let things happen than to earn a living. We need to find our Pisces talents, uncovering hidden secrets, intuitive powers, service, and spiritual connection, and use these assets in our career. If Virgo is present, you might like accounting, business consulting or being a yoga teacher or massage therapist.
The arena of life where you feel comfortable making money is indicated by the house with Taurus on the cusp and containing planets in Taurus. Taurus in the sixth house will lead you to some sort of service or mentoring job. With Taurus in the fifth house, you may want to earn money by creating and selling some form of art work. Taurus in the first house (Aries) you may want to build your own business. Partnerships, business alliances and investing interest Taurus in the eighth house (Scorpio.)
The list goes on and is very personal. That many people often feel disempowered in the area of money and finances, simply indicates that our earth journey necessitates empowering ourselves in relationship to resources. We must transform Taurus territory and cultivate our own garden to serve our personal life purpose and destiny path. We need to earn to be able to honor our own life. We need to acquire and use our possessions to serve our well-being.
If we tend our garden with self-esteem, personal value and confidence, we will grow more of the same. We grow our personal power, as well as our bank account, in our garden. What was is even better. The more we love and appreciate our gifts and physical pleasures, the more joy we experience in our earthly garden.
Tending Our Garden
While the Sun is in Taurus we can uncover our negative attitudes toward money, neediness, entitlement and powerlessness. To deal with these issues, we each have to define, explore and develop our own unique path to support ourselves financially. We have to utilize our talents, and to do so we usually have to overcome parental programming and social conditioning. The more honest we are with ourselves about who we are, what really satisfies us, and how we enjoy participating in the financial world, the closer we will get to being sufficiently remunerated for, and emotionally satisfied by our work. Our ability to utilize our natural talents will determine whether we perceive ourselves as winners or losers. Our emotional self-perception is directly reflected in our actual bottom line.
How can I Take Care of Myself?
Taurus invites us to look at how we take care of ourselves. We all have subconscious issues and attitudes about being taken care of. Some feel they are entitled to be taken care of. Others don't feel deserving of care. There are many variations on the theme, but most of us need to change something in this program. If we are the care-taker type, we can look at how we take care of others in order to try to get taken care of ourselves. We can switch our internal focus from "Who can I take care of and who can take care of me?" to "How can I take care of myself?".
We can examine our bottomless pit of neediness and use meditation to find internal contentment. When we accomplish something or receive something, we can stop and absorb the satisfaction, instead of moving on without registering the contentment.
Kundalini Yoga - Tuning into Taurus
Below are some ideas on how to tune into Taurus. Practice these after your Kundalini Yoga set or after each exercise, and after mantra and pranayama meditations.(1)
Earth Energy
Taurus is the Earth element, so during your meditation be sure to bring your attention to your root chakra. Practice Root Lock so that you feel the energetic roots from your first chakra connecting you to the Earth. We want to establish an experience of rootedness and a secure foundation in our body. This is accomplished by being present TO the sensations in our lower body.
Being present in nature helps us actually be with the stable, solid, nurturing Earth. Whether you are inside or out, tune into the solid, peaceful, totally accepting nature of Earth energy. Avoid visualizations that keep your attention in the mind and out of your body.
Desire Energy
Taurus is also desire energy. To make the best use of desire energy, we have to experience it in its most primal form, before it becomes an emotion or a commotional story. In its purest form, desire energy translates into charisma and magnetism. To cultivate desire energy, we again have to focus on the sensations in our bodies, and practice loving what we are feeling. This helps us contain our energy, which makes us a magnet. Being present to the peaceful Earth energy, and indulging in how wonderful it feels to be at peace in our bodies, is a great way to cultivate presence and power. Meditating on yourself as a flower can help stimulate a feeling of self-love. Taurus teaches us that one of the highest forms of healing is available through self-love.
References and Footnotes
"The Second House", Dana Gerhardt, The Mountain Astrologer, Issue #112, Dec/Jan. 2004, pp. 63-7.
"Scorpio Lunar Eclipse, Taurus New Moon", by Stephanie Austin, M.A., Issue #114, April/May, 2004, pp. 108-9.
1. There is an abundance of Kundalini Yoga Sets and Meditations in the Kundalini Yoga manuals:
Sexuality and Spirituality, 2nd Edition,
Transitions to a Heart-Centered World, 2nd Edition and
Introduction to Kundalini Yoga, Vol 1.
The Green Energy Set for Prosperity is the only set we have included in each of these books. This is a good one to do while the Sun is in Taurus.
TIP: Taurus likes the yogic beauty tips in Sexuality and Spirituality.
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